Temperature Controlled Mall of the World, Dubai

Earthniversity would like to share this video uploaded by Dubai Holding and is entitled “Mall of the World”. Once constructed, this newest development in Dubai will showcase one of the world’s best practices in Urban Planning, Urban Design, Architecture, Engineering, state-of-the-art facilities and to a greater extent Urban Metabolism.

In a news item written and published by Sapa-AFP on July 07, 2014, the article chronicles the newest initiative of Dubai to promote that region as one of the world’s center of Business and Trade, Hospitality and Tourism, Cultural Celebration and many others.

Here is the news account of Dubai’s Mall of the World by Sapa-AFP:

“Dubai is planning to build a temperature-controlled city featuring the world’s largest mall and an indoor park, as well as hotels, health resorts and theatres, the developer said.

Already home to one of the globe’s biggest indoor shopping complexes, Dubai Mall, the glitzy emirate known for its love of grandiose projects said it is now planning to build the “Mall of the World”.

The all-pedestrian complex would occupy a total area of 48 million square feet (4.45 million square metres), said Dubai Holding, the developer owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The project “will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world” under a glass dome that would be opened during winter, it said in a statement.

The seven-kilometre (4.35 mile)-long promenades connecting the facilities would also be covered and air-conditioned during summer, it added.

“Our ambitions are higher than having seasonal tourism. Tourism is key driver of our economy and we aim to make the UAE an attractive destination all year long,” said Sheikh Mohammed.

“This is why we will start working on providing pleasant temperature-controlled environments during the summer months.”

The statement issued late on Saturday did not say when construction would begin, nor did it reveal the cost of the project.

Dubai hopes the “Mall of the World” can attract more than 180 million visitors each year.

The emirate is known for its numerous malls and many hotels, including the Dubai Mall, touted as the world’s largest shopping, leisure and entertainment destination. It is also home to the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa.

Dubai has established itself as a global hub for air transport and transit trade, as well as a regional financial centre.

And it beat off opposition from Brazil, Russia and Turkey in November to win the right to host the World Expo trade fair in 2020.

The emirate’s economy was hit in 2009 by the global financial crisis, but it has since made a strong comeback, thanks to growth in the trade, transport and tourism sectors.”

Comment:

Since I mentioned that this project – The Mall of the World – will also showcase the concepts of Urban Metabolism, I therefore posted a video of Professor Herbert Girardet delivering a lecture on Urban Metabolism. This is for your easy reference. Professor Girardet is the Co-Founder of World Future Council on Urban Metabolism and therefore an authority on the field of U.M. This video was uploaded by UCL-ISR or University College London – Institute of Sustainable Resources for the world to watch and learn from. Thank you youtube and UCL-ISR.

Let me just define some terms to help you with this lecture.

Definition of Terms:

1. Urban Planning – “the branch of architecture dealing with the design and organization of urban space and activities.” (dictionary.com)

2. Urban Design – “is the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages. Whereas architecture focuses on individual buildings, Urban Design addresses the larger scale of groups of buildings of streets and public spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts and entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable.” (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)

3. Architecture – “The art and science of designing buildings and (some) nonbuilding structures. It has to do with planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience to reflect functional, technical, social, environmental and aesthetic considerations.” (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)

4. Engineering – “The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation or safety to life and property”. (The American Engineers’ Council For Professional Development or ECPD).

5. Urban – “relating to, or concerned with a city or densely populated area”. (dictionary.com)

6. Metabolism – “is the sum of all biological, chemical and physical processes that occur within the organism or an eco-system that enable it to exist, infinitely”. (From the lecture of Architect Ana Maria Orru, Architect and Lecturer on Urban Metabolism, uploaded by KTH at youtube. Also available at “Human Settlements and Urban Metabolism, Lecture Series #7” at Earthniversity – http://www.earthniversity.com)

“It wasn’t until 1965 when Abel Wolman fully developed and used the term urban metabolism in his work, “The Metabolism of Cities” which he developed in response to deteriorating air and water qualities in American cities.[2] In this study Wolman developed a model which allowed him to determine the inflow and outflow rates of a hypothetical American City with a population of 1 million people. [5] The model allows the monitoring and documentation of natural resources used (mainly water) and the consequential creation and out-put of waste.[6] Wolman’s study highlighted the fact that there are physical limitations to the natural resources we use on a day-to-day basis and with frequent use, the compilation of waste can and will create problems. It also helped focus researchers and professionals of their time to focus their attention on the system wide impacts of consumption of goods and sequential production of waste within the urban environment” (Urban Metabolism, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia).

Note: You can also check on the analogy of Human Body’s Metabolism to the Urban Body or Urban Center’s Metabolism at “Human Settlements and Urban Metabolism, Lecture Series #7” at Earthniversity – http://www.earthniversity.com)

References:

1. youtube – Mall of the World uploaded by Dubai Holding.
2. http:www/sowetanlive.co.za/business/2014/07/07/Dubai-to-build-climate-controlled-city-biggest-mall